Teen Missionary on Kenya Trip Allegedly Raped Orphans

[lucem-ferre]

Why the bag though ? he is hot, apart from the rapey stuff.

For me, any hotness he might have had completely goes away knowing he raped kids.

 

[pat grimshaw]

...disturbing ...

You seem too easily disturbed.

You have left out the name of the second person you're quoting. By any perspective, I would think being murdered is more 'damaging' than being raped.

 

[MakeDigitalLove]

You have left out the name of the second person you're quoting. By any perspective, I would think being murdered is more 'damaging' than being raped.

Thanks for letting me know what I knew I did.

And of course being Murdered is more damaging, but you're misinterpreting what I mean. Being Murdered or being Raped are both horrible things, just because being Murdered is "worse" does not mean the person that has been Raped feels any better just because they weren't Murdered.

It is easy on our end to say Death is worse, yet we have people who commit suicide because they'd rather not deal with their own mental issues or life in general. So yes, it is a matter of perspective when you don't understand what it is like and what one goes through after being raped.

Save you emoticon for when you actually understand the point someone is trying to make.

 

[bankside]

That is a matter of perspective. Someone who has been raped and going through the physical/emotional/psychological damage as a result might disagree.

Well, that may be. But no justice system that is actually...just...will treat rape and murder as the same. People who have been raped are entitled to heal, to go on with their lives, and they have the right to eventually say that their lives have returned to their natural courses. Those rights are stolen from someone who is murdered.

 

[zoltanspawn]

By all means, take a stand for starvation, child-brides, genocidal tribal warring, and disease. I'm sure Kincaid is the voice for countless millions who prefer malaria and malnutrition. Good to hear from the far far far right. The back to the less-than-basics movement gets so little space here in Hot Topics.

Oddly, Kincaid (Richardson) did not return to her family and the poverty of Antigua. Must come across better on paper than in the real application of such a flamboyant statement.

Granted, her writing is worthy of praise, but that doesn't make every utterance wisdom nor applicable to the missionary issue, which isn't synonymous with colonial power.

The difference between our reactions is this. When confronted with a story about the rape of children, I don't go digging around trying to justify the enterprise which enabled it.

I note reasons to doubt it.



And by the way, missionary work is colonial power.

 

[zombiekiller]

You confuse foreign aid from the State and missionary activity. Churches and NGOs voluntarily fund enterprises that help the developing world. Unlike colonial days when missionary activity might be concurrent with Westernization of other cultures, there is much more sensitivity today to respecting indigenous cultures. That doesn't erase the need for aid that goes beyond any religious mission, and many religious missionaries today provide technical skills that are needed by the groups they aid.

I'm sure I'm not the most religious person on JUB by far, but I am often the one foolish enough to rebut those who hack at what they portray as the corpse of a failed institution. Foolhardy or otherwise, that depiction isn't accurate to what is actually out there in the world, and especially not accurate to the U.S.

And Kahaih's cynical view of control may apply to some groups, but hardly describes missionary activity in total. South Korea comes to mind. More than half the population is Presbyterian, hardly known today for being controlling or dominating. In Africa, Nigeria is a center of Anglicans, hardly the puppets of England, they are marching in a distinctly conservative motion contrary to the norms of the UK.

It's easy to portray missionaries and the denominations who send them as some kind of throwback to the 19th century age of empire, but that's not accurate, and presenting Africa as some colony exploited solely by Old School Catholics or Fundamentalists is just a trope that conveniently ignores other branches of Christianity.

And yet you ignore the anti-gay propaganda missionaries have on the African continent and their effect.

Foreign aid wise, I say stop sending billions into the pockets of corrupt leaders. And stop missionary works there... or anywhere.

 

[desertboi]

Wow this is truly an awful story. Even though he may be physically attractive, what he did makes him a very ugly person.

 

[pat grimshaw]

Eunice Menja is a Family Support Coach and founded Upendo Kids International Foundation.

She lives in Oklahoma, founded an orphanage ay Upendo and went out to recruit suitable local people to act as missionaries back home.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

They've got lions...

 

[mikemizanin729]

I was being sarcastic, dont you see?

I don't believe you were.I believe you meant it and now you're trying to dig your way out of a hole that you placed yourself In.

Nice try.

 

[Willie Boy]

And yet you ignore the anti-gay propaganda missionaries have on the African continent and their effect.

And yet you espouse the pro-gay propaganda missionaries.....

...stop missionary works there... or anywhere.

Would this include the pro-gay missionaries, or just the ant-gay (or more specifically "religious" ) missionaries you despise? I say if you want to get rid of one, you'd best get rid of both.

 

[zombiekiller]

But of course you say stop missionary work as you are unequivocally anti-religion, and it is your prerogative, but it is equally the prerogative of others to do as they please.

And citing that some denominations make a point of being anti-gay in missionary work doesn't make it true of all. The same can be said of the US population. The fact that we have gun advocates or anti-gay organizations in the US doesn't make it true of all Americans.

Equating anti-gay and missionary is a presumptuous and one-sided attack. Many missionaries don't waste their time embroiling themselves in political and social issues when they have much more immediate challenges. That's not to say that there are not those who do, but you are using a broad brush and not being accurate, just taking the lazy view, like the whole colonial schtick.

And I repeat what I have posted many times, Africa was anti-gay without the apparently hypnotic powers of the white man. That fact that some ultraconservatives go abroad and find resonance among other social conservatives doesn't make them the white devil. The ugly truth is that certain groups, both Arab and Sub-Saharan Africans, have a violently anti-gay culture which was ripe for inciting. That doesn't make the homophobes foreign or domestic blameless, but it isn't something reasonable people would have imported either.

I said stop missionary works because I really want to see the west stop trying to convert other cultures. Leave other cultures alone. Stop trying to "save" other people.

 

[zombiekiller]

You confuse Christianity with "the West." It didn't begin in the west. It spread here from Jerusalem, then Greece, then Rome, then Northern and Western Europe.

And it doesn't have any patent on proselytizing: Hinduism, it's exported offspring, Buddhism, and Islam all spread beyond their homes and not because someone was travelling and happened across them and thought that would make a good souvenir. They all have had missionaries in one form or another.

Religious conversion is also not tantamount to converting a culture. Observe Buddhism in India, China, Japan, England, and elsewhere. I don't see adherents stripped of their cultural identities. I see people with a common belief system who are very different.

Observe Islam in the Levant, and in Indonesia, and in Canada. I don't see people who share a cuisine, a history, a language, a music, or other cultural trappings.

Compare Christianity in Kiev with California or Rio. There are such amazing strong cultural differences, despite a shared myth or scripture, that asserting they are culturally converted is approaching either deliberate inaccuracy or unchecked bias.

"Leave other cultures alone" portrays the exchange as one-way. Mysticism has certainly made its inroads in the meeting of the minds, and tensions naturally exist between cultures. It's not new nor is it what it was in the 19th century.

This isn't some sort of brainwashing expedition where children are subverted. These are face-to-face encounters with adults, and it is there freedom to choose or reject any philosophy or religion that is out there.

You said "stop missionary works" because you are anti-religious, and your effort to stop it is every bit as arbitrary as their effort to promote it. Religion vs. anti-religion is just one more aspect of a diverse population.

I don't hide that I'm anti religious. That said, I don't think you can make a case that christianity isn't a predominantly western religion with a straight face. It was used by the west to colonize other regions of the world. The message hasn't changed much. The difference nowadays is the wordings have become more politically correct.

Have you ever run into Buddhist missionaries? I don't mind different peoples converting from myth to myth on their own. I do mind organized efforts funded by billion dollar industries to invade other cultures.

Edit.

By the way, it isn't real freedom to choose if the converter holds all the power over the converted. I've had christians try to justify missionary works as like cook outs. It is totally different. In cookouts, I can get up and leave anytime I want.

Missionary groups usually target the most economically disadvantaged regions of the world. People in such dire situations tend to have little choice.

It's like dangling food over a starving person. There's little choice involved.

 

[Kahaih]

. . . .

This isn't some sort of brainwashing expedition where children are subverted. These are face-to-face encounters with adults, and it is there freedom to choose or reject any philosophy or religion that is out there.

You said "stop missionary works" because you are anti-religious, and your effort to stop it is every bit as arbitrary as their effort to promote it. Religion vs. anti-religion is just one more aspect of a diverse population.

I'm guessing a website called 'christianpost' is not 'anti-religious'.

From:
http://www.christianpost.com/news/t...he-was-victim-of-psychological-voodoo-123737/

teenage missionary from Edmond, Oklahoma, said to be struggling with pornography and homosexuality, is now facing life in prison after he allegedly raped underage girls and forced young boys to perform oral sex on him at a Kenyan orphanage while other children watched.
. . .

In a press release Monday the FBI revealed that the teenager, Matthew Lane Durham, 19, was arrested last Thursday and appeared before a United States Magistrate Judge on Friday. . . . .

"This is a young man in our community that made choices to exploit children in an orphanage," said U.S. Attorney Sanford Coats in a KTLA5 report. "It's a true tragedy all the way around."

. . . while he was a volunteer with the Christian charity project, Upendo Children's Home in Nairobi, Kenya. Upendo was founded by a Christian Kenyan-American couple now living in Edmond. The home specializes in helping neglected Kenyan children through the provision of food, clothes, shelter, school and religion.

. . . .

And, this is just a little tidbit from the State's FBI, just in case the above isn't good enough.

From: http://www.fbi.gov/oklahomacity/pre...illicit-sexual-conduct-with-underage-children

. . .
Durham was a volunteer at the Upendo Children’s Home, located in Nairobi, Kenya, that was founded by an American citizen who is a resident of Edmond, Oklahoma. Upendo specializes in assisting neglected Kenyan children by providing them with food, housing, clothes, school and religion. The school is funded through sponsorships and donations. It is alleged that Durham volunteered with Upendo in June of 2012, June of 2013, December of 2013, and from April 30 to June 17, 2014. It is alleged that on the latest trip to Kenya, Durham stayed at the children’s home in an “overflow bunk” rather than at an offsite facility with a sponsor family where he stayed on prior visits.

. . . .

 

[zombiekiller]

But of course you say stop missionary work as you are unequivocally anti-religion, and it is your prerogative, but it is equally the prerogative of others to do as they please.

And citing that some denominations make a point of being anti-gay in missionary work doesn't make it true of all. The same can be said of the US population. The fact that we have gun advocates or anti-gay organizations in the US doesn't make it true of all Americans.

Equating anti-gay and missionary is a presumptuous and one-sided attack. Many missionaries don't waste their time embroiling themselves in political and social issues when they have much more immediate challenges. That's not to say that there are not those who do, but you are using a broad brush and not being accurate, just taking the lazy view, like the whole colonial schtick.

And I repeat what I have posted many times, Africa was anti-gay without the apparently hypnotic powers of the white man. That fact that some ultraconservatives go abroad and find resonance among other social conservatives doesn't make them the white devil. The ugly truth is that certain groups, both Arab and Sub-Saharan Africans, have a violently anti-gay culture which was ripe for inciting. That doesn't make the homophobes foreign or domestic blameless, but it isn't something reasonable people would have imported either.

So, what you are saying is some missionaries leave this topic out and some reinforce the social conservatives of those places. This begs the question. What good are christians then if they can't even take a moral stance for social equality?

The reason I am anti-religion is because I think the moral stances are always misplaced. Everything from women's rights to racial equality to gay rights religious people have always lagged behind. They're lagging behind right now as far as gay rights go. So, the question comes up again. If christianity has the moral high ground, how come it won't take a stance for gay rights right now? What good is moral high ground if it always follow from behind?

 

[luckynumbah7]

I'd like missionary works better if the religious bit was separate from the food/clothing/shelter bit. Even when I've run into (literally, people like to set up on the sidewalk, occasionally drives me nuts) Buddhism or Islam tables they don't try and snag my ass in a "Can I ask a question/have you got a minute/"Have you been saved" way. And the only lectures and filthy looks I've gotten is from specifically Christian foodbanks operating inside a church that I wasn't a regular at - one I'm thinking of in particular, I had to sit through a twenty minute lecture on how I should've kowtowed for a loaf of bread, a package of ham slices and about five canned goods. I had to bring my damned mother in because apparently ID wasn't good enough - the stupid fuck actually thought someone was going to lie about needing his loaf of bread and cackle all the way to the bank with it. Frankly I think they loved feeling self-righteous and I didn't simper enough to suit. The roomie and I had to schedule our food possibilities around which churches had what when and then sit through - and these were, nine times out've ten, supposed to be available for the public - I know because I asked.

Africa-the-continent wouldn't be quite in so poor a shape if we (ie, the western world) hadn't killed their infrastructure.

Anyway, when you need shit you feel like you have to go because if you don't go there's a much better chance they won't give you anything.

 

[luckynumbah7]

-sorry, double posted. ugh.

 

[pat grimshaw]

…..Africa-the-continent wouldn't be quite in so poor a shape if we (ie, the western world) hadn't killed their infrastructure....

What infrastructure?

Railways made with okoubaka wood?

Telephones made with kora string?

Aeroplanes of marabou feathers?

 

[pat grimshaw]

...Anyway, when you need shit you feel like you have to go because if you don't go ...

are you talking about bowel movements

 

[pat grimshaw]

We still don't have any new news about this allegation by hearsay. Eunice Menja's allegations are sure to kill off any future donations to her Kenyan charity—

http://eastafricachildrenshope.org/current-projects/upendo/